Swansong Budget 'family friendly'

By John Armstrong

Bill Birch's final Budget will do "a lot of little things for families," according to its author. It will also coincide with an innovation: the normally bland media packs will be illustrated with a drawing of a happy couple and bubbly baby to underline the Budget's slogan, "Investing in the next generation."

The "family-friendly" Budget, to be delivered next Thursday, is Mr Birch's swansong before he steps aside as Treasurer in July and swaps jobs with the Minister of Finance, Bill English.

"It's a great Budget for the end of the millennium," Mr Birch said yesterday. "There is going to be some very carefully targeted spending."

But the Treasurer predictably avoided revealing any details such as the timing of tax cuts or whether more privatisations were signalled. The Budget was "prudent" and had some "very positive" fiscal forecasts compared to last year's gloomy deficit projections during the Asian economic crisis.

The fact this was Mr Birch's last Budget of a 27-year parliamentary career was not important. "I don't have any strong emotions about it."